Stop motion device for knitting machines



April 1, 1952 J. s. CARTER STOP MOTION DEVICE FOR KNITTING MACHINESFiled Nov. 15, 1950 55 26 INVENTOR.

JosEPH $1 CARTER gazgkw Patented Apr. 1, 1952 STOP MOTION DEVICE FORKNITTING MACHINES Joseph S. Carter, Hartford, Conn., assignor ofone-third to Samuel J. Rosenstein, and onethird to Leo D. Rosenstein,both of Hartford, Conn.

Application November 15, 1950, Serial No. 195,751

Claims. 1

This invention relates to new and useful improvements in stop-motiondevices for knitting machines; and, more particularly, the aim is toprovide a novel and valuable such device which, while requiring the usemerely of a single lever arm as the yarn detector instrumentality, isoperative at a point where a needle projects to take the yarn from theyarn guide or carrier, whereby the needles broadly as a collectiveentity serve as the agent, but more specifically the particular needleat any instant due to take the yarn from the yarn guide or carrierserves as the then eiiicacious agent, in establishing a contact pointfor the purpose of so affecting an electrical circuit as to causeactuation of the electric knock-01f mechanism of the stcp-motion.

According to the present invention, a lastpoint stop-motion device isprovided which is applicable to any type of knitting machine, makingany. kind of stitch; and a stop-motion device, moreover, which ismarkedly simple in construction and exceedingly inexpensive to fabricateand install. In this connection, no special stop-motion boxes arerequired, and hence'the stop-motion device of the present invention maybe an inexpensive addition to the same type of yarn guide that themachine ordinarily uses except for some very few andslight-modifications.

An important feature of the invention, further, is that the yarn may besaid to serve as an insulator; in other Words, the machine will not bestopped as long as the yarn is being fed through the yarn guide orcarrier, because, in

the first place, while the yarn is being thus fed,

its normal tautness of extension from the yarn guide or carrier to eachof the various needles one after another as one after another thereof isprojected to take the yarn incidental to continuation of the knittingoperation, prevents the aforesaid single lever arm from contacting anyneedle, and because, in the second place, the electrical arrangement issuch that the electric knock-off mechanism of the stop-motion isactuated when said lever arm contacts a needle.

Corollary features of the invention, consequently, are, that saidelectrical arrangement includes a circuit so constituted that, between asuitable source of current and the element as a solenoid to be energizedby current from said source to cause operation of said knock-offmechanism, there is, at one side of said circuit, a circuit subdivisionincluding the frame of the knitting machine (and therefore alsoincluding any one of all the needles) and, at the other ing, said singlelever armfthat said lever arm is electrically insulated from the machineframe and also from the yarn guide or carrier (on which said lever armis pivotally mounted) and that the yarn, after leaving the yarn guide orcarrier and while en route to the last point, i. e., to a point where aneedle projects to take the-yarn, so engages said lever arm that whilebut only while the yarn is being fed through said yarn guide or carrieris the lever arm held to a position where it cannot contact a needle.Obviously, should the yarn break, or should it become knotted, it couldnot be fed through said yarn guide or carrier.

Accordingly, it follows that in the case of the present invention themachine is not only stopped instantly following failure of the yarn tocontinue feeding through the yarn guide or carrier, but it is thusstopped regardless of the position of the needles at the instant of suchfailure. In this latter regard, the present invention is to be sharplydistinguished from such prior proposals as are based on the concept thatthe cloth must leave the needles before the stopmotion will function, e.g., for instance, as proposed in U. S. Patent No. 2,208,481, that thedetector instrumentality be placed beyond the point where the needletakes the yarn from the yarn guide vor carrier,

Furthermore, to mention another most important and revolutionary aspectof the present invention, the knitting machine equipped in accordancetherewith will be stopped when a slug or any type of foreign matter getsinto the last hole or holes of the yarn guide or carrier, since such amishap will interfere with feeding of the yarn through said guide orcarrier; while, in contradistinction to this, none of the known deviceswould in a like situation stop the machine, for the reason that there isno slacking of the yarn on the machine prior to that point which wouldso affect an electric circuit as to cause stoppage of the machine.

For further comprehension of the invention, and of the objects andadvantages thereof, reference will be had to the following descriptionand accompanying drawings, and to the appended claims in which thevarious novel features of the invention are more particularly set forth.

In the accompanying drawings forming a material part of this disclosure:

Fig. 1 is an elevational view, showing a yarn guide or carrier equippedpursuant to the invention, and showing also the yarn in course of beingfed from said carrier to the needles; some only of the latter beingshown, and a part of the knitting machine being merely fragmentarilyshown.

Fig. 2 is a perspective view of the parts seen in Fig. 1, with here theyarn, beyond its place of ex tension around the lower hooked end of thelever arm on the carrier, being shown as tautly horizontally extended tohold said end of the lever arm out of contact with any needle justassaid lever end would be held by the knitting pull on the yarn duringengagement of the latter by the needles seriatim as indicated inFig. 1.

Fig. 3 showsthe yarn guide or carrier in front elevation, as in Fig. 1,but detached from the knitting machine.

Fig. 4 is a fragmentary horizontal detail section, taken on the line 44of Fig. 3.

Fig. 5 is a fragmentary horizontal detail section, taken on the line5--5 of Fig. 3.

Fig. 6, partly, an enlarged detail section taken on the line 6-6 of Fig.3, and, partly, an electrical diagram. 7

Referring now to the drawing more in detail, a plurality of cylinderneedles are indicated at II], a plurality of dial needles at II, theyarn at I2, and a plate-like portion of the knitting head of the machineat I4. Saidportion I4, like the needles, is of metal and hence is inmetallic and electrically conductive contact with the frame of themachine; and whenever the frame of the machine is below referred to,such reference is to be taken as inclusive of said portion I4.

The yarn guide or carrier is as a whole designated I5; the same havingupstanding therefrom a pair of square posts I6 establishing therebetween an open-top vertical slot H for taking the shank of a machinescrew having an enlarged head I8. The posts I6 nicely fit within and areslidable along aguide I9 upstanding from the said plate-like portion I4;and in said guide is a tapped hole not shown having a thread matchingthat of said screw, whereby, by the use of said screw, with its headbacked by'a washer 20, the guide or carrier I5 may be correctlyanchored. in position and at precisely the height-desired relative tothe field of operation of the needles.

The forward end of the main lower body of the guide or carrier I5 ischambered near its top as at 2I, and is upwardly cavitated at its bottomas at '22. Thus, above the chamber 2I' is. a horizontal wall 23, andabove the cavitation 22 is a horizontal wall 24 which also is thefloorwall of said chamber. In each of. these walls is a different one of thetwo last holes through which the yarn I2 is passed before reaching. theneedles each of said holes being finished off, for smoothness, and inaccordancev with a practice wellknown in the art, by a. porcelain ey let25.

The aforesaid lever arm is designated 26,. and the same, at itsswinging. end, is formed into a carbide hook 27, engaged. by the yarn I2as best shown in Fig. 2, after the yarn has passed downwardly firstthrough the upper eyelet 25 and then through thelower eyelet 25.

The opposite end. of the lever arm 26 is bent to provide a pintle 28 forthe armintegral therewith. At its end remote from the main: portion ofthe lever arm said. pintle carries. a washer 29 suitablysecuredtheretoas by riveting over as indicated at 30 a reduced endportion of the pintle. Wedged tight on the pintle 28 is a steel eyeletSI, and locked between the'annular flange 3P of said eyelet and the:annular flange 32 of an insulator sleevev 32, is the. ring: portion 33of a familiar type of electric terminal 33 which together with said ringportion 33* comprises an offset extension 33* shaped near its outer endto present a crimpable cup structure 33 for being squeezed to tightclamping seizure of a conducting wire. The wire thus engaged by said cupstructure is designated 34; said wire, beyond its bared end where soengaged, having'an insulating sheath 35 to prevent accidental contact ofany part of the wire with any part of the knitting machine.

The insulator sleeve 32 is anchored tight in a cylindrical recess1(36,Fig. 6) through the yarn guide or carrier I5, by means of a set-screw31.

Upward swing of the end of the arm 26 carrying the hook 21 is limited bya stop constituted by an insulating member in the form of a fibre orplastic disk 38 eccentrically mounted on the front face of the yarnguide or carrier I5. Such mounting of said disk is by way of a screwhaving an enlarged head 39; the carrier I5 having a tapped hole notshown the thread of which matches the thread on the shank of said screw,whereby on tightening the screw the disk is locked in any desiredangular adjustment thereof and on loosening the screw the disk may beturned to adjust the same exactly as desired. in regard to its actionrelative to limiting upward swing of the end of the arm 26. carrying thecarbide hook 2'I. Such adjustment is a more quickly and convenientlyperformed one than an adjustment of the carrier I5 asa whole relative tothe guide I9; in a sense the last-named adjustment may be said to bevthe coarse one and the adjustment at the disk 38 the fine one.

In Fig. 6, the wire 34 is schematically indicated by mere linedepiction; and in this view the remainder of the electrical diagramillustrated is merely in exemplification of one of the various possiblearrangements pursuant to the invention,

\ the other terminal of the magnet 40 and a suitable source of currenttypified by the battery'4'2, and another lead 43 may go tothe frame ofthe machine by way of the carrier I5- thereof and thence by way of theknitting head I I to the needles I0 and II. V 7

Operation During knitting the normal tautness of extension of the yarnI2, beyond the carbide hookZ'I at the dependent end of the lever arm 25,and to each of the various needles I0 and II one after another as oneafter another thereof is projected to take the yarn incidentalto'continuation of the knitting operation, prevents drop of said arm tocontact any needle; the tension onthe yarn I2, as imposed thereon whilethe yarn is en route from the reel or bobbin to the guide or carrier I5,being such as to urge the lever arm 26' up toward the stop constitutedby the fibre disk '38. Consequently, during continuation of theknitting, the energizing circuit for the magnet 40 is accrues said guideor carrier at an eyelet 25, and regardless of the position of theneedles at the instant of such failure, the arm 26 will drop to contacta needle, thereby the energizing circuit for the magnet 40 will beclosed, and the electric shutoff mechanism of the stop-motion willfunction, to stop and brake the knitting machine.

While I have illustrated and described the preferred embodiment of myinvention, it is to be understood that I do not limit myself to theprecise construction herein disclosed and the right is reserved to allchanges and modifications coming within the scope of the invention asdefined in the appended claims.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire tosecure by United States Letters Patent is:

1. A stop-motion device for a knitting machine, comprising, incombination with the yarn guide or carrier through which ordinarily theyarn is passed for delivery therefrom directly to the field of operationof the knitting machine needles and seriatim to each needle as itprojects to take the yarn, a means for utilizing some one of the needlesas one of two contact points functionable when mutually touching toaffect an electric circuit in such manner as to cause actuation of theelectric knock-off mechanism of the stop motion.

2. A stop-motion device for a knitting machine, comprising, incombination with the yarn guide or carrier through which ordinarily theyarn is passed for delivery therefrom directly to the field of operationof the knitting machine needles and seriatim to each needle as itprojects to take the yarn, a means for utilizing some one of the needlesas one of two contact points functionable when mutually touching toaffect an electric circuit in such manner as to cause actuation of theelectric knock-off mechanism of the stop motion, said means including amember movable relative to the needles, said member constituting thecontact point necessarily complementary to the first-named contact pointfor affecting said circuit as aforesaid.

3. A stop-motion device for a knitting machine, comprising, incombination with the yarn guide or carrier through which ordinarily theyarn is passed for delivery therefrom directly to the field of operationof the knitting machine needles and seriatim to each needle as itprojects to take the yarn, a means for utilizing some one of the needlesas one of two contact points functionable when mutually touching toaffect an electric circuit in such manner as to cause actuation of theelectric knock-off mechanism of the stop motion, said means including amember movable relative to the needles, said member constituting thecontact point necessarily complementary to the first-named contact pointfor affecting said circuit as aforesaid, said member being arranged tobe so traversed and engaged by the yarn as it is fed through said guideor carrier that during continuance of such feed said member is held outof contact with any needle.

4. A stop-motion device for a knitting machine, comprising in acombination with the yarn guide or carrier through which ordinarily theyarn is passed for delivery therefrom directly to the field of operationof the knitting machine needles and seriatim to each needle as itprojects to take the yarn, a means for utilizing some one of the needlesas one of two contact points functionable when mutually touching toaffect an electric circuit in such manner as to cause actuation of theelectric knock-off mechanism of the stop-motion,

said means including a member movable relative to the needles, saidmember constituting the contact point necessarily complementary to thefirstnamed contact point for affecting said circuit as aforesaid, saidmember being pivotally mounted on said guide or carrier and being soarranged relative thereto as to be traversed and so engaged by the yarnafter it has been fed through said guide or carrier that duringcontinuance of such feed said member is held out of contact with anyneedle.

5. A stop-motion device for a knitting machine, comprising in acombination with the yarn guide or carrier through which ordinarily theyarn is passed for delivery therefrom directly to the field of operationof the knitting machine needles and seriatim to each needle as itprojects to take the yarn, a means for utilizing some one of the needlesas one of two contact points functionable when mutually touching toaffect an electric circuit in such manner as to cause actuation of theelectric knock-off mechanism of the stop-motion, said means including amember movable relative to the needles, said member constituting thecontact point necessarily complementary to the firstnamed contact pointfor affecting said circuit as aforesaid, said member being pivotallymounted on said guide or carrier and being so arranged relative theretoas to be traversed and so engaged by the yarn after it has been fedthrough said guide or carrier that during continuance of such feed saidmember is held out of contact with any needle, said member beingelectrically insulated from said guide or carrier.

6. A stop-motion device for a knitting machine, comprising, acombination with the yarn guide or carrier through which ordinarily theyarn is passed for delivery therefrom directly to the field of operationof the knitting machine needles and seriatim to each needle as itprojects to take the yarn, a lever arm pivoted on said guide or carrierand having a swinging end carrying an auxiliary guide for the yarneffective on. the latter after its departure from said guide or carrierand before its arrival at the point where taken by a needle, said leverarm being so shaped and arranged on said guide or carrier that thenormal tautness of the yarn between said auxiliary guide and a needle atany instant being projected to and the electric knock-off mechanism ofthe stop- ;motion having associated therewith a circuit including theneedles and said lever arm normally open between the needles and saidleverarm.

7. A stop-motion device for a knitting machine, comprising, incombination with the yarn guide or carrier through which ordinarily theyarn is passed for delivery therefrom directly to the field of operationof the knitting machine needles and seriatim to each needle as itprojects to take the yarn, a lever arm pivoted on said guide or carrierand having a swinging end carrying an auxiliary guide for the yarneffective on the latter after its departure from said guide or carrierand before its arrival at the point where taken by a motion, saidcircuit including the'needles and saidlever arm,said lever arm beingelectrically insulated fromsaid guid or carrier and consequently fromthe needles whereby normally said circuit is open between the needlesand said lever arm, said auxiliary guide being constituted by a hook onand integral with the lever arm.

8;. A stop-motion device for a knitting machine, .comprising, incombination with the'yarn guideor carrier through which ordinarily theyarn is passed for delivery therefrom directly tothe field of operationof the knitting machine needles and seriatim to each needle as itprojects to. take the yarn, a lever arm pivoted on said guide or carrierand having a swinging end carrying an auxiliary guide for theyarneffective on the latter after its departure from said guide orcarrier and before its arrival at the point where taken by a needle,said lever arm being so shaped and arranged on said guide or carrierthat the normal tautness of the yarn between saidauxiliary guide and aneedle at any instant being projected to take the yarn prevents-downswing of said lever arm to contact-any needle, a-controlling circuit fortheelectric knock-off mechanism of the stop-motion, said circuitincluding the needles and said lever arm, said lever arm beingelectrically insulated from said guide or carrier and consequently fromthe needles whereby normally said circuit is open between the needlesand said lever arm, said auxiliary guide being constituted by a hook onan integral with the lever arm, said guide or carrier being slidablyadjustable on the knitting machine toward and away from the field ofoperation of the needles, and there being adjustably carried by saidguide or carrier a stop for limiting swing of said lever arm away fromsaid field.

9. A stop-motion device for a knitting machine, comprising, incombination with the yarn guide or carrier through which ordinarily theyarn is passed for delivery therefrom directly to the field of operationof the knitting machine needles and seriatim toeach needle as itprojects to take the yarn, a lever arm pivoted on said guide or carrierand having a swinging end carrying an auxiliary guide for the yarneffective on the latter after its departure from said guide or carrierand before its arrival at the point where taken by a needle, said leverarm' being so shaped and arranged on said guide or carrier that thenormal tautness of the yarn between said auxiliary guide and a needle atany instant being projected to take the 'yarnprevents down swing of saidlevjer arm to contact any nedle,'a controlling circuit for the electricknock-off mechanism of the stopmotion, said circuit including theneedles and said lever arm, said lever arm' being electrically 8insulated from said guide or carrier and 0011- sequently from thevneedles whereby normally said circuit is open between the needlesandsaidlever arm, said auxiliary guide being constituted by a hookon anintegral with the lever arm, said guide or carrierbeingslidablyadjustable on the knitting machine toward and away from the field ofoperation of the needles, and there being adjustably carried by saidguide or carrier a stop for limiting swing of said lever arm away fromsaid field, said stop being so insulated from said guide or carrier thatcontact of said lever arm with said stop is inefiective to establishelectrical contact between said lever arm and said stop.

10.-'A stop-motion device for a knitting machine,.comprising, incombination with the yarn guide or carrier through-which ordinarily theyarn is passed for delivery therefrom directly to the field of operationof the knitting machine needles and seriatim to each needle as itprojects to take the yarn, a lever arm pivoted on said guide or carrierand having a swinging end carrying an auxiliary guide for the yarnefiective on the latter after its departure from said guide or carrierand before its arrival at the point where taken by a needle, said leverarm being so shaped and arranged on said guide or carrier that thenormal tautness of the yarnbetween said auxiliary guide and a needle atany instant being projected to take theyarn prevents down swing ofsaid'lever arm to contact any needle, a controlling circuit for theelectric knock-off mechanism of the stop-motion, said circuit includingthe needlesand said lever arm, said lever arm being" electricallyinsulated from said guide or carrier and consequently from the needleswhere by normally said circuit is open between the needles and saidlever arm, said auxiliary guide being constituted by a hook on andintegral with the lever arm, said guide or carrier being slidablyadjustable on the knitting machine toward and away from the field ofoperation of the needles, and there being adjustably carried by, saidguide or carrier a stop for limiting swing of said lever arm away fromsaid field, said stop incorporating a disk of insulating materialeccentrically pivotally mounted on said guide or carrier.

JOSEPH S. CARTER.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are ofrecord in the file ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,527,822 Karl Oct, 31, 1950

